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November 25, 2019 2019 Fact Book: Doing Business in Central Mass.

Visiting Angels: Award-Winning Leader in Home Health Care

The Northeast is home to several home care agencies; but one stands out above all the others. Visiting Angels, owned and operated by Greg Lindstrom, has been serving the greater Worcester county area for the last 14 years. The agency’s longevity can be attributed to Lindstrom’s parents, who co-founded Visiting Angels with a mission to provide quality care at a affordable price, to treat staff and clients with respect and to initiate improvements whenever needed and wherever possible.

What new services/programs does Visiting Angels now offer?

This year we continue to offer a convenient online training program for our caregivers, who are now expected to complete more than 300 hours of training during the next two years. Everyone at the agency is excited about the training platform, especially the caregivers.

Additionally, Visiting Angels has always supported and recognized caregivers in the field, but is making a concerted effort to do more going forward by presenting monthly and quarterly caregiver excellence awards. We’ll recognize caregivers with an award in the office and make the announcement in our monthly newsletter. But more important, we aim to increase the office’s visibility to our caregivers in the field by reaching out to them more often than we already do. A monthly phone call or in-home visit shows our caregivers that we are thinking of them and appreciate the excellent care they provide to our seniors.

How is Visiting Angels using technology to further improve your business?

As our business continues to grow, we are looking for ways to maximize our processes and become more efficient. As a result, we have adopted some digital platforms, which will be one of the keys to our continued success.

To streamline operations, Visiting Angels has begun using ClearCare Online, which is a powerful mobile technology platform that facilitates many tasks related to the business of delivering quality health care. This technological tool can handle everything to keep our business running smoothly, from staff scheduling that includes detailed assignments, applications and billing. Furthermore, ClearCare Online makes it easy for caregivers and families to stay informed. They have access to a live, secure portal that allows them to view care plans and schedules at their convenience.

ClearCare has also been instrumental in helping us with caregiver retention and recruitment, which has been a concern for us as the business flourishes. The demand is starting to outweigh the supply of good caregivers, but ClearCare has been a valuable tool in helping to identify qualified, professional individuals who share Visiting Angels’ core beliefs.

Visiting Angels has also gone high-tech when it comes to helping our employees stay current with the latest techniques and methods while caring for those with memory loss. In the past, our employees were required to undergo Dementia Care Training in the office, which sometimes proved inconvenient. To expedite the process, we have initiated online training, which allows us to train more caregivers more quickly and more efficiently. This virtual training also enables us to follow the progress of each staff member until he or she completes the training.

What tools do you use to gauge client satisfaction?

We now use Home Care Pulse Inc., a company that conducts monthly surveys, which collect detailed feedback and unbiased satisfaction scores from our caregivers and clients. The results from those surveys and reports help us identify exactly how we can improve our quality of care.

Visiting Angels also believes that professional accreditation is important to clients, that it instills a sense of trust in the agency. Massachusetts currently has no licensure requirements for private duty home care agencies so consumers often don’t know where to look for appropriate, quality home health care.

To offer consumers some guidance, a committee of home care experts established an accreditation system, the Home Care Alliance (HCA) of Massachusetts, which identifies agencies that voluntarily comply with quality standards that are equivalent to licensure. There are approximately 65 agencies in Massachusetts that have earned this accreditation.

What differentiates Visiting Angels from other home care agencies?

Many agencies are utilizing some of the same services, but the key is to use them consistently and back up the services you market. We pride ourselves on doing two things very well: communicating continually with our clients and strictly vetting our new hires. Benchmarking studies have shown that often it’s not the caregivers, but communication with the office that can frustrate clients.

What awards has Visiting Angels received?

As a result of this year’s Home Care Pulse survey, we were awarded the “Leader in Excellence Award” and “Best In Home Care for the Northeast Region.”

What are Visiting Angels’ keys to continued success?

We can attribute our success to three key factors: we hire the right caregivers; we maintain continual communication with our caregivers; and we embrace a policy of open communication with our families.

Visiting Angels

Greg Lindstrom, President

Address: 255 Park Avenue, Worcester, MA 01609

Phone: 508-757-4014

Website: www.visitingangels.com